Anderson Cooper On The Costs Of 'Reparative' Therapy: VIDEO

California's legislators, led by State Sen. Ted Lieu (D), are now contemplating a bill that would ban mental health professionals from performing "reparative" therapy on teenagers:

The controversial conversion therapy, sometimes also known as reparative therapy, attempts to change the sexual orientation of a person from homosexual (or bisexual) to heterosexual.

The bill would also require adults who submit to the therapy to sign a release saying they know what they're getting into.

"This therapy can be dangerous," Lieu said. He and supporters of the bill said conversion counseling is ineffective, can cause severe depression and guilt, and can even lead to suicide.

On his show last night, Anderson Cooper underlined the point by reacquainting his audience with the subject of last year's series, The Sissy Boy Experiment. That was the boy named Kirk Murphy, who became reparative therapy's posterchild after George Alan Rekers "treated" him in the early 70s, and who killed himself in 2003.

And I don't believe they mentioned that George Rekers is the same married anti-gay hypocrite that got caught hiring a rentboy to accompany him to europe in 2010 (and later had to resign from NARTH). It's so predictable.

Posted by: elliot | May 12, 2012 11:44:57 AM

hm. not a word about Rekers' being busted at the Miami airport with a rent boy.

Posted by: Daniel Berry, NYC | May 12, 2012 11:47:02 AM

George Alan Rekers was he not caught at an airport coming home from vacation with a rent boy? From wait, rent boys .com.You just can not make this stuff up.

The idea of reparative therapy for gay people is as ludicrous - not to say tragic - as the notion of lobotomies and electric shock therpy for schizsophrenia. Or burning at the stake for heresy.

Posted by: UFFDA | May 12, 2012 11:51:08 AM

Why didn't CNN mention that this is the same George Rekers who got caught hiring a male escort to go with him on vacations?

Posted by: BlueWhirl | May 12, 2012 11:51:39 AM

I think the theory should be tested by turning someone gay. Let's see... Tony Perkins, Brian Brown, Bryan Fischer, Michelle Bachmann. Which one of them is willing to put their money where their mouth is and accept the challenge.

After all, they could just be turned back after the experiment was finished.

Posted by: Laura | May 12, 2012 12:15:18 PM

I have previously mentioned Green's The Sissy Boy Syndrome, which was an effort to teach young "femme" boys to "butch it up," with the expectation they wouldn't end up gay. My favorite interview was with a pre-schooler who had been enjoying playtime by carrying a purse. When he switched to carrying a briefcase, the researchers assumed success--but when he was asked about it, he explained he was carrying briefcase, but he was pretending it was a purse.

until you, "David Hearn", and any others can put a face and name to who you are as gay man, via youtube page or your own webpage, you're in no position to tell Anderson Cooper to Come Out in a publicly official way.

Post the URL to your own page, where you show who you are as an openly-gay man, and give a face and name to the Community.

you can't sit back in the anonymity of an online world and criticize another gay man for doing what you're doing: hiding.

Because it's not a "dodge". I don't know why this still needs explaining to people at this stage of things. Cooper lives his personal life open as a gay man and is quite obviously not trying to hide anything. He doesn't discuss his personal life in his capacity as a journalist or reporter, which is entirely a decision he is completely entitled to make. His consistent reporting exposing anti-gay bigotry like this and reporting on other issues important to gay rights only increases his right to reserve his private life's details for himself in my opinion.

Posted by: Kekule's Benzene | May 12, 2012 4:01:23 PM

my stance is always this: if you're not ready, for whatever reason, to live a transparent and visible existence as an openly (meaning KNOWN) gay man,, then you should at least have the integrity to actively promote LGBT Equality, visibly and vocally, from a "neutral" identity or whateveryouwannacallit.

but i stand by it - anyone on here saying Cooper needs to come out should provide the URL to their own page, where they should the Out life they're living. you can't be mad that someone else won't do what you continue to give excuses for not doing.

Check out the video of Anderson Cooper's recent appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. The subject of Kathy Griffin's public stripping came up, including on Letterman's show. Letterman clearly and unambiguously and unashamedly conveyed that he found it and her hot. Cooper could only convey "oh that Kathy Griffin, she's crazy." To me that exchange made it crystal clear the inequality Cooper is choosing to enforce. It was dreadful to watch.

Cooper's refusal to publicly acknowledge being gay is flat-out harmful and offensive at this point.

I previously assumed that he would come out before his talk show premiered, as I thought it would be ludicrous for him to carry on a general purpose talk show with a huge and completely unshameful fact about himself off-limits for discussion. But no. It is sooo bizarre. So Merv Griffin. So Jim Nabors. Those are NOT compliments.

I would be very forgiving if Letterman or or any other public figure a guest on Cooper's show unambiguously outed him, within the next few days, preferably. Jesus. It's 2012.

Cooper's Ridiculist-worthy double-standard helps enable Romney and the gang at Liberty University, by the way.

Posted by: SLR | May 12, 2012 5:21:26 PM

edit: I would be very forgiving if Letterman or any other public figure or a guest on Cooper's show unambiguously outed him...

By the way, I'm sure Letterman and other people who interview Cooper, or are interviewed by Cooper, find it terribly uncomfortable to have to comply with the unspoken (or possibly spoken in some cases) rule that they have to dance around the topic of Cooper's homosexuality. That would really only make sense if homosexuality were shameful.

Posted by: SLR | May 12, 2012 5:26:28 PM

My problem with the last two comments is, that if Cooper had been straight, I still couldn't imagine him sitting at Letterman's or anywhere else, leering over anyone's naked body? The man is a nerd. He would still turn into a pale pretzel and snicker insanely.

I for one would hate to see him outed. That would be bullying and last time I checked, I was against that. Would be a little like holding him down and cutting his hair, right?